Let's Scare Jessica to Death

According to Lee Kalcheim, the original script for the film was far different from the completed film. Purchased by producer Charles B. Moss, Kalcheim's original screenplay, entitled "It Drinks Hippie Blood",[2] followed a group of hippies camping on a cove who are attacked by a creature that lives in the water.[9] Kalcheim described his screenplay as a satire: "John [Hancock] turned-the-screw so to speak, making it a serious, darker theme. The simplicity of the film worked perfectly to create a scary mood."[9]

Hancock agreed to direct the film only as long as he was allowed to redraft the screenplay,[8] and proceeded to rework Kalcheim's original script in both tone and thematic content, but retained certain elements at the request of the producers; the mute girl, played by Gretchen Corbett, for example, was a character from Kalcheim's original script that Moss requested Hancock retain in his redraft.[10] The scene in which the group attempt a séance was also requested to be kept in the film by both Kalcheim and the producers.[8] Hancock stated that "the scenes didn't make much sense to me, but the Mosses felt they would be particularly enjoyable and scary. I trusted their instincts because they had a concrete experience of audiences."[8] Kalcheim is credited as a co-writer on the film under the pseudonym Norman Jonas.[8] Certain elements of the film were drawn from Hancock's own life, such as the apple orchard settings and farmhouse, as he had grown up on an apple orchard, as well as Norman's career as a bassist, as Hancock's father was a professional double-bass player.[8]

In writing the role of Jessica, Hancock sought to create a filmic equivalent to the unreliable narrator in literary fiction.[11] Jessica was partly influenced by the governess in Henry James's novella The Turn of the Screw,[11] as well as the character of Eleanor Lance in Robert Wise's film The Haunting (1963).[12] The theme of evil pervading the protagonist's mind was central: "I was alarmed by the notion that you can't defeat or defuse evil—it forever lives inside and all around us—so I worked that fear inside the story," said Hancock.[13]

The film's principal female cast, from left to right: Zohra Lampert, Mariclare Costello, and Gretchen Corbett. Of all the cast members, Corbett was the only actress who had not previously worked with director John Hancock

Hancock, who had worked as a theater director prior, cast the film largely through his connections within the New York theater community, and the majority of the cast consisted of actors with whom Hancock had worked in stage productions.[14] Auditions for the parts were held in the B.S. Moss Offices on Broadway in New York City.[15] Actress Zohra Lampert was cast in the lead role of Jessica, the titular character who finds herself questioning her sanity.[16] She was approached by Hancock, her former boyfriend, while performing in a Broadway production of Mother Courage and Her Children with Anne Bancroft.[17] "I accepted, trusting his judgment," Lampert recalled.[17] "I have a great fondness for John Hancock, and enjoyed working with him very much."[17] Lampert "got lost in her character" as the script resonated with her, and she spent much of her time between takes remaining in character.[16] Hancock recalled of her casting: "I knew she would be perfect for the lead role. Zohra could play the fragility of the character, but she could also authentically convey the fear and the terror."[18]

Mariclare Costello, an actress who had worked as a casting director on Hancock's stage production of The Freaking Out of Stephanie Blake (1967),[18] was cast opposite Lampert as the mysterious hippie, Emily.[16] Hancock was specifically taken by Costello's physical features, which included bright red hair and a pale complexion, which he felt was befitting of the vampiric Emily.[18] Barton Heyman and Kevin O'Connor were given the roles of Jessica's husband Duncan, and the couple's friend Woody, respectively; Hancock had worked with Heyman and O'Connor previously, as they had appeared in his 1967–1968 stage production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.[19] Heyman had been Hancock's first choice in the role of Duncan.[18] Alan Mason, who portrayed the doomed antique dealer Sam Dorker, had also acted in several of Hancock's plays.[19] Gretchen Corbett, also an established New York-based stage actress from Portland, Oregon, was cast as the mysterious mute girl whom Jessica encounters, and was the only performer in the principal cast to have not worked with Hancock prior.[15]

In preparation, both Lampert and Costello worked with acting coach Mira Rostova for their respective roles in the film.[11] To prepare the performers for the tone he hoped to accomplish, Hancock screened several films by Alfred Hitchcock to the cast prior to filming.[11]

Let's Scare Jessica to Death was filmed over a period of 26 days[2] in the fall of 1970, in various towns in Connecticut;[16] the production budget was $250,000.[2] Principal photography began in November of that year in Old Saybrook.[16] The exteriors of the house were shot at a farmhouse in Old Saybrook,[20] while the E.E. Dickinson Mansion, located in the village of Essex, was used for the interior shots of the home.[11] While shooting, the cast and crew used multiple rooms in the expansive mansion for dressing rooms and a headquarters for the film company.[21]

Additional photography occurred in the villages of Chester,[22] Lyme,[23] and East Haddam.[16] The Chester–Hadlyme Ferry is featured in the film crossing the Connecticut River.[24] Co-producer William Badalato had suggested the location: "My wife and I had a weekend house in Chester, Connecticut. We loved the area and shared our feelings with John [Hancock] and [producer Charles B. Moss Jr.] After a preliminary scout we all agree that this was where Jessica should be filmed."[24]

Badalato recalled of Hancock's direction: "He was always responsible to our budget and was very confident with the actors. He felt close to the material as it spoke to him in some bizarre way. John actually used to take his own pulse while he was shooting and I was completely intrigued by this."[16] Because the film was shot in the fall months, the sequences that were shot in the lake required the actors to swim in very cold water.[16] The scene where Costello's character emerges from the lake in a wedding dress was filmed in late November on a day it had snowed.[25]

Let's Scare Jessica to Death was one of the first horror films to prominently feature a synthesizer in its musical score, which was composed by Orville Stoeber.[2] The song sung by Costello's character was initially going to be dubbed by a professional singer, but Hancock and the producers decided to keep her voice as it was recorded.[26]

Filmed without a distributor and produced independently (under The Jessica Company),[27] Let's Scare Jessica to Death was sold to Paramount Pictures in early 1971.[27] Frank Yablans, then an executive at Paramount, devised the film's title as they felt Hancock's working title, which was simply "Jessica", was not commercially viable.[27] Paramount gave the film a wide theatrical release in the United States.[27] It premiered in New York City on August 27, 1971,[lower-alpha 1] and opened in Los Angeles, California the following week, on September 1, 1971.[1] Fake plastic vampire fangs were given to patrons at some cinemas in promotion of the film,[29] while a horse-drawn hearse and coffins were parked in front of Manhattan's Criterion Theatre during the film's opening week.[27] During its opening week of August 27–September 1 at the Criterion, the film grossed a total of $47,651.[3]

Contemporary critical reviews of the film were mixed: Upon its release, Stanley Kanfer of Time gave the film a middling review, praising Lampert's performance but dismissing the rest of the cast's, adding that "after the first reel, the vampires seem to have lost their bite."[30] Roger Greenspun of The New York Times also praised Lampert's performance and lauded the film, calling it a "thinking man's vampire movie, probably a secret dream for at least half the world's young filmmakers."[31] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times remarked the "strong sense of atmosphere" in the film in addition to the four lead performances, who are "likable, believable people," but conceded: "There's no getting around the movie's poorly resolved script."[32] The San Francisco Examiner's Stanley Eichelbaum also noted deficiencies in the screenplay, noting that the film "seems improvised and nothing could be worse for this kind of structured suspense thriller. Hancock's direction is ridiculously disjointed and inconsistent."[33] This sentiment was echoed by Kevin Kelly of The Boston Globe, who felt the film contained so many idiosyncrasies that "nothing rings true."[34] John Simon described Let's Scare Jessica to Death as a mess.[35]

Jack Meredith of the Windsor Star described the film as a "far-out bit of froth" that "nevertheless packs continuing suspense and a what's-going-to-happen-next element that never lets down through about 1½ hours of sustained action."[36] Writing for the Edmonton Journal, Barry Westgate was critical of the film, noting: "Even contrived cinema has to have its share of rhyme or reason, and this effort by John Hancock doesn't have so much as a touch of either."[37] Ann Guarino of the New York Daily News commented on the film's ambiguous plot, writing that it "presents the problem and leaves you to solve it...  The film may not take the curl out of your hair, but it will hold your interest even if the title will throw you off—there actually is no plot to scare Jessica."[38] She also praised the performances of Lampert and Costello, as well as those of Heyman and O'Connor, but noted of the latter that their "characters are not well developed by the script."[38] The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Donald Miller wrote that "after the first ten minutes...  I thought director John Hancock...  was onto something—if not a new genre, then perhaps something as arresting as the Cat People," but felt that it devolved into a "routine vampire romp," though he did praise the cinematography and visuals.[39]

Film scholar John Stanley gave the film a favorable review in his 1995 book, writing: "Director John Hancock is to be congratulated for a multi-layered horror film with frightening visuals. There isn't much logic to the story, yet the overall effect is unsettling... the film has a dream-like quality."[40] AllMovie deemed it an "eerie low-budget chiller."[41] Film scholar Gary A. Smith remarked Lampert's performance as Jessica as "laid back to the point of somnambulism. Lampert gives a performance so overwrought that it has to rank as one of the most eccentric ever captured on film."[4]

In 2006, Eric Henderson of Slant gave the film an unfavorable review, writing: "A lesbian panic melodrama in New England gothic drag, the only things separating Let's Scare Jessica to Death from its cinematic descendants are its narrative incoherence, its lack of a directorial presence (especially surprising considering the colloquial implications of the director's name), [and] its drab, douche commercial mise-en-scène."[42] Author and independent filmmaker John Kenneth Muir gave the film 3 1/2 out of 4 stars, praising the film's cinematography, "unsettling" mood, and its ability to generate a sense of unease, calling it "very disturbing" and noting its "lovely and poetic" visuals.[43] Film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film 2 1/2 out of a possible 4 stars, calling it "creepy."[44]

In a 2013 article published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Erik Luers wrote of the film: "The technical qualities of Let's Scare Jessica to Death are superb. With gorgeous cinematography and an audio track that takes on a life of its own, each sound and image presents a hazy version of reality. As the plot develops, we learn that the world around Jessica is scarier than anything her mind could concoct."[45] Genre scholar Kim Newman has praised the film, specifically Lampert's performance, which he ranks as equal to those of Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Carrie Snodgress in Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970), Shirley Knight in The Rain People (1969), and Susannah York in Images (1972), all "portrait[s] of a woman in distress."[46]

2020 review from The Super Network's film critic Marcella Papandrea gave the film a very positive review, saying "The atmosphere and the soundtrack are haunting pieces, the film is very unnerving from start to finish, as the view is with an unreliable narrator and the audience feels what Jessica feels throughout." also reading into the subtext of Jessica's psychological state and downfall to that of the death of the counter culture movement of the 60s.[47]

The film was released on VHS and Beta by Paramount Pictures in 1984,[48] but later went out of print and was difficult to obtain.[49] Paramount released the film on DVD on August 29, 2006,[50] and reissued it on September 15, 2009.[51] Warner Brothers later released the film on August 27, 2013, through its Warner Archive DVD-on-demand service.[51] On July 20, 2019, Scream Factory announced at San Diego Comic-Con that they would be issuing the film on Blu-ray, marking its debut in this format.[52] The Blu-ray was released on January 28, 2020 and includes a commentary track from director John D. Hancock and producer Phil Badalato, interviews with composer Orville Stoeber and historian Kim Newman, a documentary on the filming locations, and other bonus features.[53] Also in 2021 Australian cult film company Imprint films released a deluxe blu ray with slipcover